Photo “Albums” disappeared after updating to IOS 18

Cannot locate my Albums in Photos. HELP!

iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 26, 2024 8:55 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 26, 2024 9:02 AM

Yeah, it changed a bunch. There is no longer separate Library, Albums, etc, windows to select at the bottom. Now when you open Photos in iOS 18, you get everything all a once. (good movie) The top half is the Library, and the bottom has Recent Days and then Albums, People&Pets, Pinned collections like Map and Recent, Memories, and so on. You just Scroll up and down to find Albums.


You can tap on Albums to get a screen that has only albums in their folders. I just discovered that!


Does this work?

171 replies

Jan 9, 2025 2:13 AM in response to Naptown58

How I wish this was true for all of us!! I seem to be relatively lucky that I have only 'lost' about 8 albums and really only one of them was really important. I have checked Albums> and the missing ones are definitely not there, nor in deleted nor anywhere else I can find.

Also why do the photos in the albums which are there appear on the lower part of the screen whilst at the top of the screen the whole album is running one by one a though I've clicked a forward arrow as in pictures on Microsoft. I just want my 'Cards' album to come back and for photos to 'sit still' until I move them.

Jan 22, 2025 10:43 AM in response to TulsaGB

My albums were created three iPhones ago (about 8-10 years) by syncing my phone to iTunes through my computer. They were stored on the hard drive of my computer in carefully curated folders. The computer died, and I no longer had access to them. This didn’t bother me because I could transfer data from iPhone to iPhone and the photos migrated in the transfer. With this update, all those photos are gone. Who can I contact, and how can I get them back? All my family memories (weddings, funerals, celebrations, etc.) were there.

Jan 23, 2025 7:08 AM in response to TulsaGB

I don't usually have issue with regular IOS update or whatsoever and never comment in community. But this update really messes up user experience especially photo album features. Hope Apple team could bring back older format/template for photo album or do similar one again. The update should be user friendly especially for app/features with heavy user usage. I'm baffled by how this has been approved and pushed out publicly when general public prefers the old format.

Feb 6, 2025 6:59 PM in response to libertybee

What a mess. My 4000 photos went to the deleted folder. I only discovered it by accident after panicking

and I restored the photos. The numbers of hours and over the past years to sort these pics into albums and now all a mess. I’m beyond angry. I’m about ready to leave the Apple ecosystem (monopoly). You’ve made a mess of iPhoto’s over the years and let’s not forget Apple Music mess.

Feb 6, 2025 8:13 PM in response to TulsaGB

Sadly, nobody at Apple is paying attention to us or this site. If they were, they would have fixed this mess a month and a half ago when they installed iOS 18. I’ve been to the Apple Store a few times and also have called AppleCare to no avail. This was the WORST Apple update ever to which there appears to be no adequate solution to retrieve our albums. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Mar 14, 2025 10:37 AM in response to siumip

siumip wrote:

APPLE needs to bring back the previous Photos app!!!!! PLEASE!!!!

Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:


Product Feedback - Apple

This new Update is an inconvenience.


I find this update to be a significant improvement and have told Apple so using the appropriate channel. So, as of this moment, Apple has heard my opinion but not yours.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Photo “Albums” disappeared after updating to IOS 18

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